The company said earlier this year that it might close The Globe, which was on track to lose $85 million in 2009. But after deep cost cuts, some achieved in a bitter showdown with the Boston Newspaper Guild, the paper’s finances improved enough that Arthur Sulzberger Jr., the company chairman, recently told Globe employees that the company did not feel compelled to sell if the price was not right.

Two bidding groups reportedly had made preliminary offers of about $35 million cash and the assumption of pension obligations. They submitted renewed offers last week, but the details were not made public. One group was led by Stephen Taylor, a former Globe executive and member of the family that used to own the paper. The other was Platinum Equity, a Beverly Hills investment firm that bought The Union-Tribune of San Diego.

Jonny–I think a lot of people in Boston and the surrounding areas care.
If the Globe would disappear, from what sources would you get the news from your region. A surviving tabloid?
The tragedy of the disappearing newspapers is the diminishing number of truly news gathering (and, of course, investigating) journalists.

I think this is good. While the Taylors had the commitment to good journalism, I’m not sure they had the money to keep the Globe going for the long term. And while Platimum had the money, I’m not sure they had the commitment. At least for now, the Times had both the money (or so it seems) and no one questions their commitment to quality journalism.

Indeed, the correct headline would be “NYTimes GIves Up Trying to Sell Globe” or perhaps “NYTImes Forgoes Globe Sale”. the $1B+ purchase (now valued at $35M + pension obligations) might rank as one of the worst in recent media history, but not the worst….

The value pf every financial asset is DFCFe. When that number is less than $0, the offer reflects that.

The employees should be thanking God or whatever deity they prefer that Platinum Equity didn’t prevail. Those folks are killers in the best sense of the word from a financial operations perspective. They are focused exclusively on cash flow and care nothing about anything other than cash.

Think they care about you or the “intangibles” of your business? Think again.

Check out what they’ve done in the past if you woner whether you should believe anything that’s not part of the definitive agreements.

I’ve sold business units to Platinum. They’ll fight you pver $1OK: I love them, but don’t trust them.

I visit Boston a lot. There is some loyalty to the Globe, but most readers agree that it is a weak rag that seems like a glorified high school newspaper. its national coverage is, well, puerile. No scoops. NYT shoulda sold at a lower price because this puppy is only going in one direction….